The Kansas Flint Hills - A natural treasure!

Trish and I just got back from a five-day visit to the amazing Flint Hills of eastern Kansas, in my opinion one of the most beautiful places on Earth. Trish and I got in some terrific hikes, and we even managed to find a nice variety of snakes.

Yep, we like to look for snakes together... our idea of a romantic getaway. We take photos and then leave them to go about their business. The Milk Snake below is one of many we found. Beautiful, isn't it?

The place we stayed is called the Flying W Ranch, in Chase County, Kansas (Chase County is the topic and setting for the book, PrairyErth, by William Least Heat-Moon).  We also spent a few days at the Flying H Ranch about 20 miles from there. The Flying W Ranch has 7,000 acres of Flint Hills tall-grass prairie that looks very much the same as it has looked for thousands of years. It is an underappreciated natural environment. But don't give away the secret... we love how quiet it is there!